Sunday, March 26, 2017

The week began with a nice session in the gym, lots of squats and getting in touch with hip flexors. This carried over into yoga, where the usual poses triggered a new awareness of hip flexors and range of motion.

Saturday's long run was much better that last week's, did the entire 14 miles and finished strong. Kept a closer watch on HR, pulled back intensity even just a little whenever it got past 2.5.

Moved Sunday's bike FTP interval workout to Tantalus as prep for CTTS. Could only do the first interval as planned, but I expected that after Saturday's run. Average power was off a bit on second rep so made the third rep a drop set and focused on form. Afterwards treated myself to a nice brunch at Honolulu Coffee Co.

Avg power, goal 160 - 177 watts
rep 1 - 167
rep 2 - 153
rep 3 - 125

TSS for the week went a bit over. Not sure where the extra came from but most of it is probably from the long run and spin class. Oh yea, I did a longer run than usual Monday before ST, that explains the first bump in the 7 day chart. I don't feel as tired today as I did last Sunday, which is nice. The second peak was spin class.

I would like to do Sunday's bike on the North Shore, just for fun. If so I may change the intervals to 2 x 15 min. Easier to maintain constant power without switchbacks.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

This week brought back some of the TSS scores lost last week. Like I said, work was done last week but strength training does not score TSS points. I actually did take it easy early in the week this week, and my R&R week is not a whole week, more the three to four days. Even so it looks more like a week #1.

The Saturday long run went well. Was worried about finishing in time, got confused and messed up my plan out in Hawaii-Kai, ended up only doing 13 miles but it was good. Never try to math after more than three miles of running! Very, very tired at the end. Could barely walk home. Had to cut back on Sunday's ride, duration and intensity, due to tired legs. Good active recovery kind of follow-up to Saturday's run. Until Hapalua running takes priority, even though this week is officially a bike week. Sunday's planned FTP intervals will more likely turn into an easy ride to Makapuu. I'll just have to see how I feel.

This weekend's efforts got me a nice bump on my ramp charts. That dip last week was because I did not run due to sore legs after Thursday's gym session. That work will help push future numbers higher.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

This was an interesting week in that it did not follow my training plan yet it resulted in an especially intense leg stress. I am sure the leg punishment will come back as a noticeable increase in strength and speed.

The idea of planning by TSS rather than duration is that the numbers include intensity. TSS = duration x intensity. But there are ways to stress muscles that do not register the kind of intensity TSS represents. Strength training is a good example. My Thursday morning hour in the gym was not nearly as exhausting as a brisk three mile run, yet it had a big negative impact on my legs. Soreness rather than fatigue. Those sore muscles are unwilling to work the next day even though I do not feel fatigued. Let's just say the fatigue is focused on the muscles we worked, so any activity that requires them will be less successful.

Thursday evening happened to be yoga workshop with a guest instructor, and it was another hard workout. I got through it, but my legs were on fire. My Wednesday swim got cancelled due to a semi-annual dental check-up. Friday night the family planned on going out to dinner to celebrate my birthday (67!), so I could only do one of the two workouts originally planned for Friday. Swim, or bike. Seeing how this was a bike focused week and my TSS was already falling behind plan, I decided to pile on the legs and do a max effort interval set on Tantalus. Simple, warm up the do 3 x 5 min all out with plenty of recovery in between. I knew my legs were tired so intensity and duration were up for compromise. Right away I decided to shorten the work interval to four minutes, but left the intensity as an all out effort.

One thing I learned from this is that the new Trainingpeaks workout builder over estimates TSS for intervals like these. It assumes I will hit the high effort instantly and hold it steady throughout the work interval. What happened to me, Friday and again Sunday, is that when I ramp up to the desired power my speed increases, which unloads my legs, which makes the power drop. You could say there is a technique aspect to this. Another thing I noticed today and probably affected me Friday is that I set my Edge to display 30 sec power. Many triathletes recommend this to minimize chasing after wild fluctuations. The problem with this setting and doing intervals is that during transition, up and down, the display lags. I would overshoot the start of the work interval and drop below target when it ended. Next time I will use a three sec setting.

On Friday night I knew my legs were too cooked to run safely Saturday morning, so I traded my planned 10 mile run for something I have never done, a climb up Koko Head Crater. I expected a steep walk up and down, so having to prace from trestle to trestle was a surprise. Even so I think it was a perfect follow-up to the previous two days.

I already mentioned how I suspect the Trainingpeaks workout builder over estimates TSS. My Sunday bike workout suffered from that and lingering soreness and fatigue. I was supposed to do two rounds of 10 reps, 1:30 at sweet spot and 0:30 well above sweet spot. I targeted 150 watts for SS and 185 for the harder part. I only managed six in the first round, and three in the second. So instead of getting 96.8 TSS as planned I only got 49.4.

All this helps explain why I missed my TSS goal by so much, yet ended the weeks with very tired legs.

You can see this represented in today's ramp rate charts.

I have a nice progression since the first of the year, but this week lacks the bump I usually get from the long run and long bike. Still not where I was training for Honu last spring!

Last week

ATP: 700 TSS
Planned: 736.3
Actual: 359.8

This Week

Week of 3/13 - Base 3 Week 4

Focus: R&R, the Saturday run will take precedence over the Sunday bike.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Last week was a run week and having recovered from GAR I managed to get in a lot of good running, about 20 miles. Tuesday afternoon swim and Wednesday afternoon spin class were victims of the rain that fell most of this week. I was lucky to anything done.

Pattie had a race on Sunday I so I did my Friday afternoon swim alone. Used my swim buoy. Managed to go a bit longer than usual, over a 1,000 yards. Felt nice and strong. Water was fine in spite of the rain. I heard it was bad on the north shore.

I had to cut Saturday's run short to have time to do packet pick-up for Pattie's 10k and attend a board meeting, but the run felt great. Felt as though I could run all day. Light wind from the south west, weird running home with a headwind. Not too hot but very humid. Took a few salt tabs.

I managed to get in a bike workout Sunday afternoon. Not exactly as planned, but similar. Plan called for a nice long warm up followed by 2 x 25 min sweet spot intervals. I have done these the last few times on Tantalus, a good preparation for CTTS, not so good for holding power on the flat at a fast cadence. On Sunday the morning rain probably covered Tantalus with mud and debris, and even in the afternoon the sky was dark and threatening, so I opted to go east and do some hill repeats in Portlock. Managed 5 x 4 min often getting above the original target zone, and after five times up that hill I was pretty tired. Cruised up Lunalilo Home Road, turned off just past the fire station and rode the long, smooth loop Kapaia St - Kukuiula Lp. Held a brisk high zone 2 pace all the way home.

On Sunday I spotted a dumb thing on my training plan. Typical of an inexperienced self-coached athlete, but I take the fact that I caught it as a good thing. I scheduled Sunday's workout as a bike-run brick. Yes. I thought I should do a 30 min run off the bike, the first twenty at tempo. After a two hour, very hard, above tempo ride? I do need to do more bike-run bricks to prepare for the Honolulu Triathlon, but not after a killer bike ride. That is just an invitation for an injury.